Pacific Region

## # A tibble: 4,776 x 7
##    newspapers           word          n total      tf   idf  tf_idf
##    <chr>                <chr>     <dbl> <dbl>   <dbl> <dbl>   <dbl>
##  1 Alaska Dispatch News alaska       26  3864 0.00673  1.10 0.00739
##  2 LATimes              joshua       18  4855 0.00371  1.10 0.00407
##  3 The Spokesman-Review mammoth      16  4489 0.00356  1.10 0.00392
##  4 The Spokesman-Review simpson      14  4489 0.00312  1.10 0.00343
##  5 The Spokesman-Review bones        12  4489 0.00267  1.10 0.00294
##  6 Alaska Dispatch News alaskans     11  3864 0.00285  1.10 0.00313
##  7 Alaska Dispatch News utqiagvik    11  3864 0.00285  1.10 0.00313
##  8 The Spokesman-Review woolly       10  4489 0.00223  1.10 0.00245
##  9 Alaska Dispatch News ocean         9  3864 0.00233  1.10 0.00256
## 10 The Spokesman-Review amazon        9  4489 0.00200  1.10 0.00220
## # ... with 4,766 more rows

LA Times

photo

Alaska Dispatch News

photo

The Spokesman-Review

photo

Rocky Mountain Region

## # A tibble: 4,252 x 7
##    newspapers                word            n total      tf   idf  tf_idf
##    <chr>                     <chr>       <dbl> <dbl>   <dbl> <dbl>   <dbl>
##  1 The Salt Lake Tribune     s              24  5491 0.00437  1.10 0.00480
##  2 Idaho Falls Post Register yellowstone    20  3388 0.00590  1.10 0.00649
##  3 Idaho Falls Post Register idaho          12  3388 0.00354  1.10 0.00389
##  4 The Wyoming Tribune       birds          11  3552 0.00310  1.10 0.00340
##  5 The Salt Lake Tribune     adapting       10  5491 0.00182  1.10 0.00200
##  6 Idaho Falls Post Register houston         8  3388 0.00236  1.10 0.00259
##  7 Idaho Falls Post Register pierce          8  3388 0.00236  1.10 0.00259
##  8 Idaho Falls Post Register legislators     7  3388 0.00207  1.10 0.00227
##  9 Idaho Falls Post Register foreman         6  3388 0.00177  1.10 0.00195
## 10 Idaho Falls Post Register wrote           6  3388 0.00177  1.10 0.00195
## # ... with 4,242 more rows

Idaho Falls Post Register

photo

The Salt Lake Tribune

photo

The Wyoming Tribune

photo

Midwest Region

## # A tibble: 7,335 x 7
##    titles_midwest                          word      n total     tf   idf tf_idf
##    <chr>                                   <chr> <dbl> <dbl>  <dbl> <dbl>  <dbl>
##  1 Grim forecast in Minnesota climate ada~ the      76  1451 0.0524     0      0
##  2 Climate change: when local is global.   the      71  1506 0.0471     0      0
##  3 Climate change: when local is global.   and      67  1506 0.0445     0      0
##  4 Climate change: call it what you will,~ the      65  1653 0.0393     0      0
##  5 Scientists offer new estimate for how ~ the      61   961 0.0635     0      0
##  6 K-State experts outline climate change~ the      56  1400 0.04       0      0
##  7 WANTED: LEADERS WILLING TO FACE CLIMAT~ and      49  1115 0.0439     0      0
##  8 Grim forecast in Minnesota climate ada~ to       48  1451 0.0331     0      0
##  9 Report: Climate change could increase ~ the      48   976 0.0492     0      0
## 10 Climate change, logging collide         the      47  1103 0.0426     0      0
## # ... with 7,325 more rows

Illinois

photo

Indiana

photo

Iowa

photo

Kansas

photo

Michigan

photo photo

Minnesota

photo

Missouri

photo photo

North Daktoa

photo photo

Nebraska

photo

Ohio

photo

South Dakota

photo

Wisconsin

photo

Southwest Region

## # A tibble: 9,910 x 7
##    titles_south                           word      n total     tf   idf  tf_idf
##    <chr>                                  <chr> <dbl> <dbl>  <dbl> <dbl>   <dbl>
##  1 Industrial Evolution                   the     258  4393 0.0587 0     0      
##  2 Is Climate Change Denial Thawing in T~ the     163  2881 0.0566 0     0      
##  3 Industrial Evolution                   to      129  4393 0.0294 0     0      
##  4 WHAT WOULD DARWIN DO?                  the     123  1820 0.0676 0     0      
##  5 Industrial Evolution                   of      120  4393 0.0273 0     0      
##  6 Industrial Evolution                   a       102  4393 0.0232 0     0      
##  7 Industrial Evolution                   and      99  4393 0.0225 0     0      
##  8 High and Dry                           the      88  1628 0.0541 0     0      
##  9 Is Climate Change Denial Thawing in T~ of       81  2881 0.0281 0     0      
## 10 Industrial Evolution                   water    76  4393 0.0173 0.575 0.00995
## # ... with 9,900 more rows

Arizona

photo photo photo photo

New Mexico

photo photo photo photo

Oklahoma

photo photo photo photo

Texas

photo photo photo photo

Northeast Region

## # A tibble: 7,590 x 7
##    NE_articles          word      n total     tf   idf tf_idf
##    <chr>                <chr> <dbl> <dbl>  <dbl> <dbl>  <dbl>
##  1 Northeast Article 3  the     225  3434 0.0655     0      0
##  2 Northeast Article 12 the     220  2957 0.0744     0      0
##  3 Northeast Article 13 the     128  1826 0.0701     0      0
##  4 Northeast Article 3  and     118  3434 0.0344     0      0
##  5 Northeast Article 12 to      103  2957 0.0348     0      0
##  6 Northeast Article 3  of       94  3434 0.0274     0      0
##  7 Northeast Article 11 the      85  1270 0.0669     0      0
##  8 Northeast Article 3  to       84  3434 0.0245     0      0
##  9 Northeast Article 12 of       77  2957 0.0260     0      0
## 10 Northeast Article 8  the      76  1018 0.0747     0      0
## # ... with 7,580 more rows

Northeast Wordclouds

photo photo photo photo photo photo photo photo photo photo photo photo photo photo photo

Southeast Region

## # A tibble: 6,519 x 7
##    SEarticles           word      n total     tf   idf tf_idf
##    <chr>                <chr> <dbl> <dbl>  <dbl> <dbl>  <dbl>
##  1 Southeast Article 15 the     130  1985 0.0655     0      0
##  2 Southeast Article 1  the     115  1932 0.0595     0      0
##  3 Southeast Article 7  the      87  1582 0.0550     0      0
##  4 Southeast Article 15 of       69  1985 0.0348     0      0
##  5 Southeast Article 4  the      69  1151 0.0599     0      0
##  6 Southeast Article 10 the      59   890 0.0663     0      0
##  7 Southeast Article 1  of       54  1932 0.0280     0      0
##  8 Southeast Article 12 the      53  1147 0.0462     0      0
##  9 Southeast Article 13 the      53   913 0.0581     0      0
## 10 Southeast Article 15 in       51  1985 0.0257     0      0
## # ... with 6,509 more rows

Southeast Wordclouds

photo photo photo photo photo photo photo photo photo photo photo photo photo photo photo

Final Analysis

We found that almost all of the articles we chose had more negative words than positive when comparing the BING sentiment values. This is unsurprising, but where we see differences in region is the words that cause these negative values. For example, the word “misinformation” appeared with high frequency in the south region, compared to words like “emission” or “damage” from other regions across the country. We think this is an interesting difference between what different regions in the US might think the problem with climate change is. The south region had articles which seemed to think the problem is overreaction, misinformation, and government control. The pacific region had articles very fearful of the effects of climate change, as did the midwest region with “floods” and other extreme weather being high frequency words. The Rocky Mountain region was the only region with an even distribution of negative and positive valued words. However we did not think this was too surprising, given the political affiliation of states the newspapers were pulled from - Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho.

There was also an interesting difference between regions in terms of the scale of climate change. For example, articles pulled from the south region had words like “Americans” and “national”, where the articles from the northeast region had words such as “world”, “countries”, and “global”. High frequency words from the midwest and pacific regions also mentioned words of government and politics, but nothing specifically global. We thought it was interesting that only one article clearly conveyed a concern for the rest of the world, when climate change has been established as a global issue.

Another interesting difference between regions we found was whether regions had a stronger correlation with problems or solutions. Articles pulled from the southwest region had high frequency words like “energy” and “oil” and “emissions”, compared to “education” and “change” from the midwest articles. This seems to convey the idea that the midwest was more concerned for solutions to the existing effects of climate change, whereas the south region could be more focused on identifying the roots of the problem.

Overall, we think we have a general sense of feelings towards climate change over the different regions of the US. However, for future research, we think it would be a good idea to collect articles from every state, and not only use articles that came from big newspapers. We think we might see more of people’s true opinions on climate change if we do not primarily focus on articles coming from bigger cities.